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Thai Curry Soup With Silver Sillago Fish For Brave Hearts Only!

Just the other day I went back to a restaurant called Salaloy in Rawai Beach, Phuket, Thailand. On my previous visit, I noticed that they had some very interesting soups on their menu and I was up for an adventurous meal this time.

The soup that got my attention was the Curry Soup with Silver Sillago Fish and Vegetables (for 150 Baht or about $5 Canadian). I never tasted nor heard of Sillago fish and wanted to try something local and fresh. They first looked like sardines on the menu pics but they were a tad bigger than I expected.

Here’s what they look like fresh:

The waiter didn’t speak English very well and told me that the soup was VERY spicy and pointed for me to try something else on th menu, but I was up for the challenge and told him so with confidence!

I was hungry, and when the soup arrived, I was happy to see that it was very rustic looking and had a lot of substance. When I actually dug in with my spoon, I realized that the soup was jammed packed with about 6 whole fishes – with gills, tail, head and eyes! I’m not normally one for eating a whole fish, but I must admit the fish was pretty darn good. The fresh white meat slid off the spine very clean and was nice and flakey. Not sure if I can compare the fish to anything I have had in the past, but it was just nice and not to fishy nor dense.

I was very glad that I ordered rice with this soup. This soup was damn spicy and the rice cooled it down for every spoonful I had. Let’s just say that this soup was spicy enough to make a boy into a man or make a women grow hair on her chest if she was to have this soup all the time! I’m betting that the spiciness rating would be a 10 or even a 10+ easily in North American restaurants! Don’t get me wrong with the spiciness, I loved the soup and ate it all up. Just had a red face afterwards.

Beside the not so in your face curry spices that blended in the soup, it had hot red chiles and peppercorns. Look at the green fresh peppercorn galore that was swimming in my soup below! It was a jam-packed pool party for them! This is the first time ever I had fresh peppercorns like this in bunches. Wonder if I can buy them back home like this?

The other wonderful ingredients floating in the soup that I can tell were: keffir lime leaves, mushrooms, baby corn, Thai green eggplant (which I really loved the most in the soup). The Thai eggplant was much different from Chinese eggplant and had a great firm yet juicy texture (not as mushy as purple eggplant).

Here’s what a Thai eggplant looks like up close:

I would consider ordering this soup again someday or try to make a similar one at home, but probably turn down the heat from a 10 to a 7.

Handy Dandy Note: I just learnt over the last few days, that most food prepared in Thailand restaurants are laced with MSG. I did have a tad of a bad reaction from the MSG from this soup afterwards (swollen ankles and fast heartbeat) and next time I will try to ask the kitchen not to add it if they can. I understand that not all restaurants here comply to your request though, either because the cook may be stubborn or wait staff not knowing what MSG is.

If you are ever in Thailand and want to order food with out MSG, this is how to say it: “Mai sai pong chuu rot”. You would pronounce it like so: “Mai (down) sai (up) pong (up) chuu (neutral) rot (high tone)”